Each of the individual "states"—the little McNugget-shaped landmasses that make up the United "States" of America—have their very own little economies, just like a real country. Perhaps, although the entire USA is broke as a motherfucker, taking a "granular" look at the state level will revel that, like a weird, unseen quantum world, their own economies are stronger than expected. Maybe?

Let's just take a look at this report here... "The Fiscal Survey of States says that even as states struggle with tepid revenue growth, they will be called on to spend more because of the economic distress caused by continued high unemployment." Ah. Shucks. Maybe if we dive deeper, down to the local level... "Local governments are still seeing declines in their revenues."

Oh hell. Okay. Well that's only our nation, states, and cities that are doing poorly. There's still the dream of landing a highly paid job! "One consequence of the economy's shift away from production toward brain work is that companies are constantly seeking new ways to break down high-value intellectual tasks into smaller, cheaper bits." Meh. There's still... the black middle class! "Though the recession and continuing economic downturn have been devastating to the American middle class as a whole, the two and a half years since the declared end of the recession have been singularly harmful to middle-class blacks." There's still uh, the dream of equal opportunity! "Jobless rates among blacks have consistently been about double those of whites." And income equality! "From 1979 to 2007, the richest 1% of Americans increased their after-tax income by 275%."

There's still safety overseas! "Britain's government said Tuesday that economic growth would be slower than initially predicted, forcing it to borrow more money and delay a planned reduction in its budget by a year." Uhhh... there's still saving the children? "More than 16 million children now live in poverty in the United States, the highest number since 1962."